Chapter 134

Mr Garrison made this growly sighing noise as he sat in his chair with the bridge of his nose pinched between the forefinger of either hand. His eyes were closed as he absorbed everything he’d just heard.

You were sitting in the same chair in front of his desk that you’d been in the morning before, but instead of Gemma sitting next to you, Ms Bellagamba was standing with one hand on her hip. As soon as you’d knocked on Garrison’s door and asked him to be a witness for you he had gotten this look on his face that was somewhere between ‘Oh good God why?’ and ‘I’m too old for this shit.’ When he’d asked what for, and you mentioned it was for an HR meeting because you were getting fired, the ‘Oh good God why’ disappeared and settled into the Too Old look. Bellagamba had pushed past you and entered the office, talking about how you were stealing funds from the firm and were petulant and disrespectful.

Garrison then asked you what happened, and you told him everything that had happened in the Conference room. There was a part of you that wondered if now was the time to leverage the Joy issue entirely - the problem was, a Partner of the firm was already trying to fire you, and trying to blurt out a sexual harassment claim to counter it without evidence would make it look less reliable.

“You can go back to work as usual, John,” Garrison finally said.

“Terry-” Bellagamba started.

Garrison held up a finger. “Tanya.” She clicked her mouth shut and glared at him, and he turned back to you. “As usual.”

“Thank you, sir,” you said, and got out of the chair and slipped out of the office. One of them shut the office door behind you, and you walked to the next office over which was Jimmy Garfield’s, one of the associates who worked from home more often than not. And he wasn’t in at the moment. You closed the door and sat down at the desk, pretending to work and trying to listen to the muffled sounds of conversation.

Unfortunately, the office building was well designed and you couldn’t make much more out than both of them raising their voices, first Bellagamba, and then Garrison. Deciding to abandon the idea, you slipped back out of the office and considered stopping by HR anyways to make a complaint, but that could undo whatever Garrison was doing if you made an official report.

That left you with one real option, so you headed back to the conference room.

“John, we’ll all quit in protest,” Gemma said as soon as you stepped in.

Joy scoffed at the idea, but you didn’t care. “It’s a big nothing-burger,” you said. “As soon as Garrison got the story, he told me to get back to work and he’s talking with Bellagamba.”

“That’s Miss Bellagamba to you,” Joy scowledat you.

“Sure,” you said, then turned back to the girls. “Though I appreciate the sentiment.”

As you moved past her to get around to your chair, Gemma brushed you with her arm - the best she could do to try and comfort you with Joy in the room. Eric offered you a low-five underneath the edge of the table when you sat down, and you gave it to him gladly. You sat down and opened your laptop, starting to try and figure out where you’d left off in your work before you’d been interrupted. Over the next few minutes you realized you were getting looks from both Gemma and Sabrina over the tops of their laptops, and met them both, trying to reassure them.